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To Sam13 November 2017

Bullying

I have been verbally threatened and physically hit by the same pupil at school for 12 months now. The school have failed to stop it. Can you please advise me on how to stop it?

Sam21 November 2017

Hi there,

Bullying can happen anywhere - at school, at home or online. It can happen to anyone by one or more people. It can take the form of threats, verbal abuse and name calling, being teased, humiliated, being physically hurt, ignored and made to feel bad. Whatever way the bullying happens, it’s wrong.

Bullying can be hard to cope with because it puts you down, makes you feel bad and can affect your confidence and self-esteem and the longer it goes on the harder it can be to cope.

Some people try to cope on their own, perhaps using distraction techniques like listening to music, drawing, exercise or spending time with friends. Some people decide to speak to someone like an adult they trust like a teacher or parent and they hope that this person will help them to get the bullying stopped. It can be very disappointing if this doesn’t happen and it can leave you feeling like nothing can stop it.

If you speak to an adult, it’s important to keep going back to them to explain that the bullying is still going on and that you are finding it difficult to cope and need help to get it stopped. At school it’s possible to go higher up so you could start by speaking to your form tutor, then your head of year and then your head teacher if the bullying continues.

If you feel your school are not doing enough you can even contact the board of governors and your local education authority. Your school has a responsibility to keep you safe when you are there and this includes not being bullied. It’s not okay for them to ignore what is going on.

Another option would be to report the threats and physical bullying to the police on the non-emergency number 101. You could ask an adult to help you with this, but you can do it on your own too. Police may wish to speak to your parents or carers about what is going on for you during the process if you are under age of 18.

It could be that you would like to talk through some of the ideas I’ve mentioned in a bit more detail and you can do that by contacting a counsellor at Childline, who would listen and support you to try and find a way to get the bullying stopped.

Take care for now.

Sam

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